Sugar cane grows in temperate and tropical climates, mostly within 22 degrees of the equator, and especially in Brazil. The crop requires a plentiful water supply and does not withstand frost. Sugar cane harvesting machines can process roughly 100 tons of raw material per hour. A harvester mows down cane stalks and chops them up into billets. The billets are carted from field to mill in large truckloads for refining into sugar.
Despite around two billion tons of sugar cane being produced worldwide every year, sugar cane yield monitoring is still in its infancy. There are currently no good ways to measure the yield of a cane field with spatial precision. Without maps of crop yield, it is hard for farmers to spot underperforming areas of their land. The result is cane farming that is not as efficient as it could be, leaving both producers and consumers worse off than necessary.
Hence, what are needed are systems and methods for mapping sugar cane yield, i.e. sugar quantity produced per unit area.